Major General Leigh Wade USAF 1st Round-the-World Flight Signed Portrait, 1977

Description: Major General Leigh Wade USAF 1st Round-the-World Flight Signed Portrait, 1977 Outside Dimensions 8.5" by 11". Extremely rare. Signed to Karen by Leigh Wade. Frame shows minor wear, light fading, EX condition. E1 Wade was one of the four pilots on the world's first aerial circumnavigation of the globe: the 1924 'World Flight'. The four Douglas World Cruisers (Wade's was the Boston) set off on 6th April and three of them touched down in Seattle on 24th September. The Seattle had crashed early on and while the original Boston sank in the north Atlantic, the original prototype plane was requisitioned as Boston II and Wade and his navigator continued the flight. Courtesy of the National Aviation Hall of FameWADE, LEIGH - 1974 Becoming a cadet in the aviation section of the Signal Corps in 1917, Wade received flight training from the Royal Canadian Air Force and in France. After serving as a flight instructor, in 1918 he made acceptance tests of warplanes at Paris. Assigned as a test pilot to the air service engineering division at McCook Field, Ohio, in 1919, he set an altitude record of 27,120 feet in 1921, and a three-man altitude record of 23,350 feet in 1922. In 1924, Wade was chosen to pilot the "Boston," one of four Douglas World Cruisers attempting the first round-the-world flight. The planes left Seattle, flew to Alaska and crossed the Pacific to the Orient. From India, they flew to the Middle East, Europe and England. Enroute to Iceland, the "Boston" was forced down on the Atlantic. Wade and his co-pilot later rejoined the flight in Nova Scotia in the "Boston II," which ended successfully at Seattle. Wade then became chief of the flight test branch at McCook field. In 1926 he joined Consolidated Aircraft Corporation as chief test pilot. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Forces Air Intelligence section, then with the 1st bomb group. Next he commanded Batista Field, Cuba, and later served with the 14th Air Force. After the war, he became air attaché to Greece iin 1949 and to Brazil in 1952, and served as chief of the air section on the joint Brazil-United States military commission until he retired as a major general in 1955. Leigh Wade passed away on October 31, 1991. Shipped via Priority Mail within 24 hours of payment.

Price: 74.99 USD

Location: Dayton, Ohio

End Time: 2023-11-11T05:29:03.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD